Over the past 40 years, global tertiary expansion has been driven in part by the rise of the non-university sector. The growth of this sector, which includes vocational colleges, also contributes to increasingly diverse national higher education systems. Prior research has focused on inter-state variation in national systems, while very few studies have explored intra-state variation in the expansion of non-university sector. Building on the policy innovation and diffusion model, this study uses event history analysis to investigate key drivers behind Chinese prefecture cities' adoption of vocational colleges during the latest tertiary education expansion. The study employs a rich panel dataset from 273 Chinese cities between 2000 and 2014. Findings suggest that the socioeconomic and the politico-institutional contexts matter the most for cities' policy adoption, and the influence of policy diffusion is negative but not significant. Moreover, there is substantial heterogeneity across time and region. The characteristics of early adopters significantly differ from those of late adopters, and the diffusion paths vary within and across regions. This study illustrates that the emergence of sub-national government affiliated non-university institutions is driven by a complex combination of socioeconomic, politico-institutional, and policy forces. Results highlight the regional contextual factors that may override coercive pressure from national strategies to promote the non-university sector expansion and the structural diversity in the context of less developed economies.

In this study, the 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, China serves as a natural experiment for examining the effect of natural disasters on high-stakes exam performance among students who were admitted to four-year colleges between 2005 and 2011. Results of a generalized difference-in-differences model show that, on average, the earthquake reduced a student's National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) standard score by 55% of a standard deviation. The findings have implications for higher education and China's economy, because earthquake exposure lowers a student's probability of being accepted to an elite college, pursuing a major in a high-salary field, and moving to a highly developed urban area for education or employment.

专业学位研究生教育的基础是基于工作场所的学习。以科技小院培养农业硕士生的培养模式为案例，基于实践共同体理论，从时空维系、社会网络构建、信任知识生产三个方面，分析了专业学位研究生教育中实践共同体在相互介入、共同事业、共享技艺库三个维度的构建过程。研究发现，科技小院培养模式为建立健全专业学位研究生教育中的产教融合机制提供了新视角，为培养乡村振兴所需的高层次应用型人才提出了可行的路径。

The massification of higher education has dramatically changed the association between credentials and jobs in advanced countries, while its impacts in transitional economies have received less academic attention. To address this research lacuna, the paper utilizes rich information from China’s national surveys of college graduates from 2003 to 2019 and multiple waves of census data to explore the temporal and spatial effects of tertiary education expansion on college graduates’ job sorting. Regression results from the fixed effects model and the two-stage least-squares model indicate that, on the temporal dimension, the higher education expansion has weakened ties between college credentials and quality jobs over the past 20 years. Recent graduates are more likely to work in informal, non-urban, and non-public sectors, and the college earnings premium has also declined. There is a persistent gap in employment outcomes between bachelor’s and associate degree holders. On the spatial dimension, the growing enrolment size leads to skill sorting towards low skilled regions. The study argues that the dynamic effects of college credentials may be explained by labour market flexibility and cohort crowding after higher education expansion. This paper calls for a critical reflection on the merit of further massification of higher education in developing economies, regarding its potential impacts on intergenerational inequality and regional inequality.

由于社会、经济、文化和信息资本的匮乏，来自低收入家庭的资优大学生在学业准备和发展中处于明显的不利地位。为支持此类学生的发展，国内外研究型大学开始突破单一的经济资助模式，着手建立经济困难学生的综合支持计划。本研究以北京大学“燕园起航项目”为例，采用本科学生发展调查数据和倾向性得分匹配法，考察了该项目对高校资优困难生发展的影响效应。研究发现，以辅导员一对一咨询为核心的深度辅导类活动显著提升了受资助学生的学业表现、通用能力和向党组织靠拢行为。以党史学习、主题游览为核心的实践出行类活动，对经济困难学生向党组织靠拢具有显著促进作用。该项目还可以弥合经济困难学生与非经济困难学生群体在通用能力方面的发展差距。综合支持计划有助于为资优困难生提供信息资本、构建社会支持网络和发展文化资本，从而改善他们在研究型大学中的就读经历和发展质量。

合法性危机是薄弱学校之所以薄弱的重要原因与表征，薄弱学校参与集团化办学后，与多元利益相关者的联系与互动变得紧密，多重合法性得到增强，劣势竞争地位得以转变。具体而言，教育行政部门和教育集团主要影响其规制合法性，通过政策规制、资源分配来控制学校组织，激励学校及内部成员遵循自我利益满足的响应策略；专业团体、教育集团、教育行政部门、社会共同影响其规范合法性，其中教育集团影响学校理念、价值观，社会期待影响师生心理荣誉感和情感倾向，促进教师积极内化新观念和价值观；来源于师生的认知合法性是最深层次的合法性，促使师生形成共同理解和文化认同，引发自觉行动。规制合法性、规范合法性、认知合法性对薄弱学校的影响依次递进，学校及其内部成员行动响应遵从自利到自觉的逻辑秩序，并表现出对资源和价值观的重视。

为了有效评价和提升研究生的个体发展质量，需要引入适当的中层理论和评价指标。以硕士生为对象，把自我主导力、创新能力、职业成熟度作为硕士生个体发展质量的代表性指标，分析了导生互动对硕士生个体发展质量的影响路径。实证分析结果显示，在导生互动对硕士生创新能力和职业成熟度的影响中，自我主导力具有显著的中介效应，是硕士生个体发展质量的核心。研究结果为建立硕士生个体发展质量和导生互动质量动态监测机制、营造以学生为中心的导生互动质量文化提供了实证支持。

职业教育对个人社会地位获得的影响直接关系到职业教育的吸引力，与当下普职分流所引发的教育焦虑紧密相关。基于2003—2017年中国综合社会调查数据和年龄—时期—世代模型研究职业教育社会地位获得的年龄效应和世代效应发现，中等职业教育人群的职业声望显著高于普通高中教育人群，而高等职业教育人群的职业声望显著低于普通本科教育人群。中等职业教育对社会地位的影响存在年龄和世代效应。随着年龄的增加，中职人群和普通高中人群的职业声望差距逐步拉大；随着世代的更替，中职人群和普通高中人群的职业声望差距逐渐缩小。对社会地位等级自评的分析发现，中职人群低估了其获得的实际社会地位，存在认知偏差。职业教育的社会地位获得既受微观个体生命历程的影响，也深刻地烙上宏观社会变迁的印记。提高职业教育对个人社会地位获得的影响效应是提升职业教育吸引力的必由之路。为此，应关注职业教育毕业生的职业生涯发展和终身成长，给予技能人才公平待遇，落实职业教育的类型属性，营造崇尚技能的社会文化。